The young son of Marscal Godwin, Gizel Godwin is a scheming, powerful, manipulative man who knows exactly what he wants: power, and just what he'll do to get it.

Gizel is the son of Marscal and Rosalind Godwin. Rosalind was one of the many victims of the civil war between Falzrahm and Shahrewar. When she died, Gizel cried for days and locked himself in his room. After that, though, he believed that his mother would want him to make Falena a strong nation so that no one would suffer through the vestiges of war.

During the civil war, Gizel was slated to marry Sialeeds, and both of them were reportedly extremely happy with the union. After Arshtat became Queen, and Sialeeds vowed never to marry or have children so there would never be another civil war, her engagement was cancelled. Both Gizel and Sialeeds were not happy with this arrangement, but did it anyway.

The Prince first meets Gizel when he is en route to Stormfist. The royal ship is attacked by lizards, and Gizel arrives to destroy the beasts. He greets the Prince warmly, and escorts the royal party around the Stormfist arena. Although Gizel plays an excellent host, he schemes to win the Sacred Games through any means, and to eliminate anyone who could potentially beat Childerich, his representative. He lays many half-baked schemes to cover his tracks rather then one major elaborate one. His plan to eliminate Zegai relied a lot on luck: it was only chance that Armes would take the bait of the secret passage under Stormfist, and that the gladiator Shoon would hear them talking. However, when it succeeds, Gizel plays his cards right. He acts just as surprised as the royal party, and does not try to implicate Salum or Euram in such a plot. After Zegai is disqualified and imprisoned, Gizel returns to his father Marscal, who warns Gizel not to engage in intrigue too much.

During the Sacred Games, Gizel has several plots to get rid of Belcoot, the one most slated to win. The plan that succeeds was getting Marina, the young innkeeper, to place Dark Arcanum in Belcoot's food. Because the girl loves Belcoot, he figures she'll use it so that Belcoot won't be engaged to someone else.

After the end of the Games, Gizel sees off the royal party. As they leave, Marscal tells Gizel that the Prince seems to have changed because of this incident. He will soon become a great danger to Gizel and his schemes.

Gizel does not make a move until the engagement banquet. He places Dark Arcanum in the banquet food, and conspires with Alenia and Zahhak to have some people on the inside. His plan is to drug everyone so that his takeover can be as bloodless as possible, but all of the royal family, minus Lymsleia, would have to be killed. However, he underestimates Arshtat, and because she is ready for the plot, the Prince and Sialeeds manage to escape, even though Arshtat and Ferid do not. However, Gizel manages to turn this setback into a positive for him by claiming the two royals were abducted by Georg, who actually murdered the Queen and Ferid.

Gizel figures the Prince will flee to Lunas and sends troops to intercept, but Haswar gets the two away. They flee to Barows territory, where Gizel sends troops which will, ostainably, "rescue" the captive royals. But the Prince leads the forces on the front lines to fight Gizel back.

Although Gizel never goes out to do the fighting, he does most of the planning back at Sol-Falena. Now that Gizel is in the palace, he needs to do several things: Tap into the power of the Sun Rune and defeat the dissenting forces, like the Prince and the autonomous governments like Raftfleet. Gizel cannot bear the Sun Rune himself, but he manages to raise up an army by drafting many men and clamping down on dissenters. However, he does not instill loyalty in his people, losing them both to his brutal tactics of recruitment and by the Prince conquering mercifully, such as his near bloodless tactics to restore Lordlake.

Gizel also has many domestic problems with his wife, Lymsleia. Initially, he sequestered her in her room with Miakis to prevent her from committing suicide. But Gizel needs Lym to become Queen so that he can become Commander of the Queen's Knights. Lym refuses, she knows what he'll do with such a position. But Gizel threatens Miakis and the Princess capitulates. Lym and Gizel constantly try to get the better of each other, with Lym even riding out onto the front lines of battle to escape her husband and meet her brother. But her plans fail due to Sialeeds's defection. Gizel is pleased to see her again, although he can tell she did not leave her nephew for his benefit.

After Gizel starts losing his primary generals and territory, he prepares to make his stand in Sol-Falena. He knows the Prince will storm the palace looking for Lym. He initially tells Lym to leave, but she won't. So Gizel waits with her in the throne room, telling Alenia and Zahhak that he wants to speak to the Prince. However, they do not listen and die attempting to prevent the Prince from coming in.

When the Prince enters the throne room, Gizel and the Prince talks. Although Gizel threatens Lym's life, Lym calls his bluff and knows he won't do it. The Prince and Gizel engage in a duel to the death with the monarch being victorous. As he lies dying, he explains about the Sun Rune. Gizel is actually at peace when he dies, but mentions to the Prince that he is not the real winner of this conflict. The only real winner was Sialeeds. And then he dies, to join with his true love in death.

When the Prince sees a vision of Arshtat in the Sun Rune, Gizel is also seen among the crowd, congratulating the Prince. - Matt620 (article), Basel (image)